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In line with the rapidly changing mood on climate action, a survey of 1.2 million people finds that two thirds think climate change is a global emergency, confirming the political and business shift to action. Compared to the snails pace of change over the last four years, things appear to be developing quickly now.
In the USA:
- As mooted, Biden announced a raft of measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions yesterday and while largely well received, Bloomberg notes that coal was not targeted;
- Throwing an air of caution, an opinion piece in The Guardian is sceptical about the extent of reform; and
- Coincidentally, GM has announced a move to fully electric vehicles by 2035 as part of its net zero emissions plan.
In other news:
- Why the EU’s proposed levy on imports is an important test for pricing global emissions;
- A taskforce is looking at the regulation of a global carbon offset market;
- Analysis finds Australia needs to set a carbon emissions reduction goal of at least 50% by 2030 to meet net zero by 2050 (woah 😲);
- A stand of food trees used by koalas has been cleared in Redlands, Brisbane;
- Populations of sharks and rays have declined by 70% over 50 years with 75% of species threatened with extinction and much of the problem is linked to overfishing;
- Included in this supply chain is slavery on Taiwanese, Chinese and South Korean fishing vessels (where bycatch includes sharks and rays) but it’s hard to stop and some of the fish ends up in Australia;
- Be careful, online stores are rife with greenwashing, taking advantage of the growing market for environmentally responsible goods;
- The NZ Climate Commission will release its report this weekend as Jacinda announces decarbonisation in the transport sector; and
- Plant growth is adversely affected by uptake of pharmaceutical drugs in the soil.
Top Story
Biggest ever survey finds two-thirds of people think climate change is a ‘global emergency’ | The Independent
The biggest ever survey on climate change has found that almost two-thirds of people think it is a global emergency. The most popular options for tackling the crisis were conserving forests, using renewables, adopting climate-friendly farming techniques and investing more money in green businesses. The least popular course of action was adopting a plant-based diet. The international survey canvassed the views of 1.2 million people and was conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 7 October to 4 December 2020.
Climate protesters in San Francisco. Photo by Li-An Lim on Unsplash
Climate Crisis and Emissions
Why the EU’s proposed carbon border levy is an important test for global action on climate change | The Conversation
In the more than two decades since the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, national policies on climate change have had dangerously and disappointingly little effect on global emissions. Within the current economic system, perhaps the most ambitious attempt to reduce emissions has been the EU’s emissions trading system (or ETS)… the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, plans to present its carbon border levy in June 2021 as part of its Green Deal planning… Although its details are still undecided, the carbon border levy is expected to charge imports into the EU at an amount related to the emissions trading system price.
Carney Taskforce Looks to Boost Global Carbon Offset Market | Bloomberg Green
A group set up by ex-Bank of England Governor Mark Carney seeks to bolster the scale and credibility of traded carbon offsets, even as critics warned the approach may not be the best way to tackle climate change. The report by the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets released Wednesday laid out how a global market for trading carbon offsets, a tool that’s become increasingly popular with corporations seeking to zero out their greenhouse gas emissions. Buying such credits are often much cheaper than undertaking structural changes to lower emissions from a company’s operations.
Australia needs to cut emissions by at least 50% by 2030 to meet Paris goals, experts say | The Guardian
AUSTRALIA - Australia will effectively be abandoning the Paris agreement unless it makes at least a 50% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reaches net zero well before 2050, according to an analysis by policymakers and scientists. A report by a new group calling itself the Climate Targets Panel found the Morrison government should be setting a 2030 emissions reduction target of between 50% and 74% if Australia was to comply with goals of limiting global heating to 2C and 1.5C respectively.
Environment and Biodiversity
Shark and ray populations nearing ‘point of no return’ after 70 per cent drop | The Independent
Shark and ray populations have declined by more than 70 per cent since 1970, researchers have found, largely as a result of a massive increase in fishing pressure. The dramatic fall in populations means that three-quarters of oceanic shark and ray species are threatened with extinction, scientists found in a new study charting their decline between 1970 and 2018. Globally, their numbers plunged by 71.1 per cent within that period, while fishing pressure – the proportion of sharks and rays caught relative to their global population – increased 18-fold. The study, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that 24 of the 31 oceanic shark and rays species are classed as threatened with extinction. Several are identified as critically endangered, including the oceanic whitetip, the scalloped and the great hammerhead sharks.
Koala habitat destroyed in Redlands after 100-year-old gumtrees bulldozed | ABC News
A lone koala sat high in a gumtree in the bayside suburb of Ormiston, east of Brisbane on Wednesday, as the trees around it were bulldozed to the ground. Redlands Councillor Wendy Boglary said she spent the last 12 years trying to protect the small koala colony that used a tract of undeveloped land as a key feeding ground and breeding site. "Today is pretty devastating," Ms Boglary said, as she watched 100-year-old gum trees being fed through a woodchipper.
Land in red with koala habitat at Cowley Street at Ormiston. (Google Earth)
Victorian kangaroo meat heading to supermarket shelves under expanded harvest plan | ABC News
The Victorian Government has increased the number of kangaroos allowed to be killed as part of its controversial kangaroo harvesting program by nearly 40,000. Minister for Agriculture Mary-Anne Thomas said the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning estimated the current kangaroo population was almost 2 million across Victoria, up almost 40 per cent compared to 2018. "There's an abundance of kangaroos at the moment competing for food with livestock and so this is also about making sure we have a sustainable number of kangaroos in the state," she said.
Wanted: bison rangers for woodland in the Garden of England | Reuters
UK - Conservationists in England are looking for the country’s first ever rangers to look after European bison, Europe’s largest land mammal, which is being introduced to Kent more than 15,000 years after its ancestors roamed the landscape. Kent Wildlife Trust and the Wildwood Trust are bringing a small herd of the animals to Blean Woods near Canterbury in Kent, the south-eastern county known as the Garden of England, to help naturally manage the habitat.
A bison is seen at Wildwood Trust, Wild Animal Park, Blean Woods, Canterbury, Britain, January 27, 2021. Reuters/Paul Childs.
Badger cull: New licences 'to be banned after 2022' | BBC News
UK - New mass badger cull licences are to be stopped after 2022 under plans to phase out culling of the wild animals. The environment secretary George Eustice has launched a consultation on the next phase of the government's strategy to eradicate bovine TB (bTB) in England by 2038. The drive will instead focus on vaccinating badgers and cattle.
See also:
Economy and Business
'Greenwashing' is rampant in online stores, consumer authorities find | Reuters
Many of the “green” claims on companies’ websites are exaggerated, false and potentially illegal, according to a study of online shops and traders by the European Union and national consumer protection authorities. As consumers demand more sustainable goods, the number of environmental claims made by companies is rising -- and with it, “greenwashing”, where companies exaggerate their environmental credentials to win over shoppers. Looking into “green” claims, mostly by online stores and also some traders’ websites in November 2020, the European Commission and national authorities found the problem was rife.
'A new day in America': General Motors vows to end sales of fossil fuel cars by 2035 | BusinessGreen
USA - Citing the need to establish a "safer, greener and better world", the Detroit company unveiled the sweeping new plans today as part of a drive to achieve carbon neutrality across its products and operations by 2040. GM said it would meet its goals by significantly growing its range of electric vehicles (EVs) over the coming decade, while also taking steps to transition all its operations to clean energy by 2035. The company, which has worked with the Environmental Defense Fund on the new decarbonisation programme, said it would establish science-based targets that would put it on track to meeting its 2040 goal, and had already signed the Business Ambition Pledge for 1.5C.
Qantas and BP unveil strategic partnership to reduce carbon emissions | Reuters
Qantas Airways Ltd and BP PLC on Thursday announced a strategic partnership to reduce carbon emissions in the aviation sector in Australia as part of their goals to become carbon neutral companies by 2050. The agreement, along with Air New Zealand Ltd on Thursday backing the New Zealand government’s decision to implement a biofuels mandate to cut carbon emissions in the transport sector, is a sign that the coronavirus pandemic has not killed long-term industry environmental goals.
Politics and Society
Why is it so difficult to stamp out seafood slavery? There is little justice, even in court | The Conversation
Each year, thousands of men and boys labour under extremely exploitative conditions on commercial fishing vessels owned by Taiwanese, Chinese and South Korean companies… These fishing vessels mainly catch tuna, marlin and swordfish, but they have also been found to catch threatened species, including sharks, dolphins, turtles, whales and seabirds. Much of the catch is sold fresh to markets in Asia, but is also processed in countries like Thailand and exported beyond Asia, including to Australia.
Biden, Emphasizing Job Creation, Signs Sweeping Climate Actions | The New York Times
USA - President Biden on Wednesday signed a sweeping series of executive actions — ranging from pausing new federal oil leases to electrifying the government’s vast fleet of vehicles — while casting the moves as much about job creation as the climate crisis. Mr. Biden said his directives would reserve 30 percent of federal land and water for conservation purposes, make climate policy central to national security decisions and build out a network of electric-car charging stations nationwide. But much of the sales pitch on employment looked intended to counteract longstanding Republican attacks that Mr. Biden’s climate policies would inevitably hurt an economy already weakened by the pandemic.
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Biden killed the Keystone Pipeline. Good, but he doesn't get a climate pass just yet | The Guardian (Opinion)
USA - Joe Biden scrapping the Keystone XL permit is a huge win for the Indigenous-led climate movement. It not only overturns Trump’s reversal of Obama’s 2015 rejection of the pipeline but is also a major blow to the US fossil fuel industry and the world’s largest energy economy and per-capita carbon polluter… Biden’s policy catchphrases of “America is back” and “build back better” and his assurance to rich donors that “nothing would fundamentally change” should also be cause for concern. A return to imagined halcyon days of an Obama presidency or to “normalcy”– which for Indigenous peoples in the United States is everyday colonialism – isn’t justice, nor is it the radical departure from the status quo we need to bolster Indigenous rights and combat the climate crisis.
Indigenous activists protest a Keystone construction site near the US-Canadian border in Montana in May 2020. Photograph: Angeline Cheek/AP
Climate Commission’s advice likely to shock | Newsroom
NEW ZEALAND - The Climate Change Commission will release draft advice on everything from the amount of greenhouse gases New Zealand should emit in the next 15 years to whether we're dealing with methane from cows in the right way and whether our emissions reduction target under the Paris Agreement needs to be strengthened. It could also make specific policy recommendations, like converting dairy land to forestry or banning the import of fossil fuel vehicles from a certain date. The sum total of its advice is likely to shock the nation out of its multi-decade-long complacency on the urgency of the climate crisis - and our own failure to tackle it.
Related:
Legal threat over bee-harming pesticide use | BBC News
UK - The Wildlife Trusts is to take legal action against the UK government over its decision to allow a pesticide that is almost entirely banned in the EU. In 2018, the EU banned the outdoor use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which harm pollinating insects such as bees. But following Brexit, the government approved the emergency use of one neonicotinoid to combat a crop disease.
Food Systems
Study: Majority of European consumers mistrustful of food sector sustainability claims | BusinessGreen
Overall trust in the food system has improved in Europe in the wake of the pandemic, yet the overwhelming majority of consumers continue to have low levels of trust that food is produced in a sustainable way. That is one of the top line conclusions of a survey of more than 20,000 people across 18 European countries published this morning by Europe's largest food innovation centre, EIT.
Turning food waste back into food | Phys.org
There's a better end for used food than taking up space in landfills and contributing to global warming. UC Riverside scientists have discovered fermented food waste can boost bacteria that increase crop growth, making plants more resistant to pathogens and reducing carbon emissions from farming.
Drugs used to treat HIV and flu can have detrimental impact on crops | Phys.org
The increased global use of antiviral and antiretroviral medication could have a detrimental impact on crops and potentially heighten resistance to their effects, new research has suggested. Scientists from the UK and Kenya found that lettuce plants exposed to a higher concentration of four commonly-used drugs could be more than a third smaller in biomass than those grown in a drug-free environment.
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